Player Diary: R.W. McQuarters

K. Palmer, R.W McQuarters

01/22/2008

I was watching (Lawrence) Tynes' last kick and it was a thing of beauty. I just wanted to run on the field after he made it but he just ran right off the field. I wanted to run and congratulate him but I also wanted to stay on the field and shake some hands.

We never even thought he'd miss two times in a row. We see him every day in practice. We know what he's capable of.

Once overtime started we knew we had to step up defensively. We knew it was sudden death. We said ‘hey, let's get a three-and-out and give our offense a short field.' Once Corey (Webster) got that interception, we really had a short field. It was just a matter of getting two first downs. I just told Corey ‘good job.' That was a huge, huge play.

This is just an unbelievable feeling. As a secondary and as a team, we've had so many ups and downs all season. No one's given us a chance. Sam (Madison) has gone down with some injuries; we lost (Kevin Dockery) with some injuries. But for the secondary to make big plays in the playoffs like we have and close games out, it says a lot about our team.

We were able to do some things defensively to confuse Brett (Favre) and force him out of the pocket and get him to make some throws that he didn't want to make. The biggest thing we did was getting our hands on receivers and not allowing them to get upfield fast. By putting our hands on them it slowed down the receivers and slowed down the routes.

You have to always be aware that it's Brett Favre across the line of scrimmage. No matter what the situation, that's Brett Favre over there. You have to think like that because when you don't that's when he hurts you. It's not that we're scared of what he might do, but we know what he's capable of with the ball.

I really don't think this has sunk in yet. In the morning, when the newspapers show Patriots vs. Giants playing for the Super Bowl, then it'll really hit me. It just feels so surreal. It took me 10 years to get here and it's beautiful. This is what you work for all year long. To think back way back in April and June the Super Bowl seemed so far away. There was so much work that needed to be done. But now that we're here, we know with all the hard work we put into it we deserve to be here.

I think we really started to believe once the playoffs started. We didn't want to talk about the Super Bowl but that's everybody's goal. We weren't going to kid ourselves and act like we didn't know the steps it takes to get there. We knew if we won three games we'd get to go to the Super Bowl. We really did just attack it one game at a time.

Coming into this NFC Championship Game, we knew we were only one game away from the big one. Win one game and we play for the big one. We weren't looking past this game. We weren't talking about making any preparations beyond this game. Our schedule was only about coming to Green Bay and winning. If we won, then we would talk about all the other stuff.

We're going to enjoy this win; we're going to celebrate right now. We understand we have the Patriots. The Patriots understand they have us. We're just going to go out and try to get a victory. We're going to try to do some things differently than we did last time.

We're now about to start two more weeks of hearing how we're not going to be able to win. We just have to block that all out. Everyone's going to talk about the Patriots and how they're 18-0. But at the same time, it's the Super Bowl and we want to get the win. They have a couple rings. Guys in this locker room want to get a ring for the first time. We just have to come together like we did these last three weeks.

We're all so happy for Coach Coughlin. It's really amazing. It just goes to show you that he wants to be here. He's done some different things like how he treats us and whatnot. He's made a conscious effort in having a relationship with his players and it's worked out great. Here we are in the Super Bowl. I'm so happy for Coach Coughlin. Not just the team and the organization but we're all very happy for the head man.

This locker room is special. We have chemistry all the way around. When you walk into our locker room, it's fun. Guys are happy to be at work. That's what it's about. That's how you win football games.

Man it was cold out there, but I didn't have any sleeves on. I had on the red half-sleeves but I ended up taking them off after I fumbled the punt return. The same thing happened on the pick. I was just careless with the ball. I just need to lock it in high and tight. I felt like (crap). I didn't want to be the guy to cause us to lose the game. We didn't lose so it wasn't an issue, but with me fumbling I just have to be more careful with the ball.